Accessibility and User Experience

accessibility & uxtheaccessibility
Accessibility & User Experience
You Can’t Have One Without the Other
12/30/2019 1
Photo Source: https://themighty.com/2017/09/why-disability-accessibility-matters/

Who Am I?
12/30/2019 2

The extent to which people
(including with disabilities) are able to
understand and use a product.
How a person feels about and interacts
with a product
The Overlap of UX and Accessibility
12/30/2019 3
What is UX? What is Accessibility?
What do UX practitioners do? What do Accessibility advocates do?
Through research, advocacy and empathy, create products
that meet user expectations and needs

Great Perspectives…and Challenges
 “We can reframe accessibility in terms of what we provide, not what other people lack.”
- Reframing Accessibility for the Web (Anne Gibson)
http://alistapart.com/article/reframing-accessibility-for-the-web
 “We seem to live in a world where the able-bodied among us are considered normal, and
everyone else must strive to attain that level.”
- I Am Not Broken: The Language of Disability, Bookworm Blues
http://www.bookwormblues.net/2014/09/10/i-am-not-broken-the-language-of-disability/
 “People with disabilities are the nation's largest minority, and the only one that any person can
join at any time”
- Defining Disability Diversity in Society
https://www.disabled-world.com/disability/diversity.php
12/30/2019 4

Accessibility:
A Brief Overview
12/30/2019 5
Photo Source: https://www.is.mpg.de/de/news/blind-justice

Some (Mis)Perceptions of Accessibility
 Accessibility = just blindness
 It’s just not a big enough % of our audience
 “All of our users need to be able-bodied”
 “Accessibility is just for government compliance”
 “You can’t expect an experience to work the same for everybody.”
 “It’s too difficult or expensive to make an application/web experience accessible”
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Disabilities…by the Numbers
12/30/2019 7
 People (all ages) with a disability in the
United States: 12.7%
 Ages 21-64: 10.6%
 Ages 65-74: 25.1%
 Working-age people with disabilities
working full-time/full-year: 23.9%
Source:
Cornell University 2017 Disability Status Report:United States

12/30/2019 8
Disabilities:
Not Just Blindness
Photo Source: https://www.easterseals.com/sepa/our-programs/childrens-services/adapted-computers-and-adapted.html

Vision Disabilities
12/30/2019 9
 Blindness
 Poor Vision
 Color Blindness
Globally, it is estimated that approximately 1.3
billion people live with some form of vision
impairment.
Source: World Health Organization

Hearing Disabilities
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 Hard of Hearing
 Deafness
 Tinnitus
According to the American Tinnitus
Association, 50 million Americans experience
some form of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing
noise in the ears. Additionally, roughly 1
million people in the U.S. are functionally deaf.
Source: Bureau of Internet Accessibility
Photo Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/12/04/national/japans-first-public-sign-language-phones-installed-haneda-airport/#.XVLbtpNKiL4

Motor Disabilities
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 Cerebral palsy
 Muscular dystrophy
 Arthritis
In the US, about 74.6 million people have
some type of physical disability. Of today’s 20
year-olds, just over 1 in 4 will become disabled
before they retire.
Source: dosomething.org
Photo Source: https://www.ilrcsf.org/about/galleries/photo-gallery/

Cognitive and Other Disabilities
12/30/2019 12
 Attention Deficit
 Dyslexia
 Seizures
An estimated 15-20% of the population,
including many of the brightest minds of
recent generations such as Albert Einstein,
Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford, has some sort
of language or text comprehension difficulty.
Source: WebAIM.org

Environmental Impediments
12/30/2019 13
 Rooftop Displays
 Poor Lighting
 Multiple Interfaces

12/30/2019 14
UX Techniques + Accessibility:
Archetypes/Personas

Example Users: Building Automation World
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 Facility Operator?
 Service Technician?
 Security Guard?
 Security Operator?
 Case Investigator?
 Facility Manager?
 Director?
 CEO?
 Nurse?
 Teacher?
Poor
Vision
Color
Blindness
Blindness
Hard of
Hearing
Deaf
Arthritis
Motor Skill
Limitations
Seizures
Attention
Deficit
Dyslexia
Poor or Too
Much
Lighting

12/30/2019 16
 Security Guard?
 Director?
 CEO?
 Nurse?
 Teacher?
Poor
Vision
Color
Blindness
Blindness
Hard of
Hearing
Deaf
Arthritis
Motor Skill
Limitations
Seizures
Attention
Deficit
Dyslexia
Poor or Too
Much
Lighting

12/30/2019 17
 Security Guard?
 Director?
 CEO?
 Nurse?
 Teacher?
Poor
Vision
Color
Blindness
Blindness
Hard of
Hearing
Deaf
Arthritis
Motor Skill
Limitations
Seizures
Attention
Deficit
Dyslexia
Poor or Too
Much
Lighting

12/30/2019 18
 Security Guard?
 Director?
 CEO?
 Nurse?
 Teacher?
Poor
Vision
Color
Blindness
Blindness
Hard of
Hearing
Deaf
Arthritis
Motor Skill
Limitations
Seizures
Attention
Deficit
Dyslexia
Poor or Too
Much
Lighting

12/30/2019 19
 Security Guard?
 Director?
 CEO?
 Nurse?
 Teacher?
Poor
Vision
Color
Blindness
Blindness
Hard of
Hearing
Deaf
Arthritis
Motor Skill
Limitations
Seizures
Attention
Deficit
Dyslexia
Poor or Too
Much
Lighting

12/30/2019 20
 Security Guard?
 Director?
 CEO?
 Nurse?
 Teacher?
Poor
Vision
Color
Blindness
Blindness
Hard of
Hearing
Deaf
Arthritis
Motor Skill
Limitations
Seizures
Attention
Deficit
Dyslexia
Poor or Too
Much
Lighting

12/30/2019 21
UX Techniques + Accessibility:
Usability Testing
Photo Source: https://knowbility.org/services/usability-testing/

Testing with Disabled Users
12/30/2019 22
 In-Person Testing
 Remote Testing
 Recruiting?
Pretending to be disabled and using a product
is not the same as asking users with actual
disabilities to use a product.
Photo Source: https://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/services/usability-accessibility-testing

12/30/2019 23
Accessibility Guard Rails:
Don’t Fight the OS, Browser or
Design System
Photo Source: https://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/

Browsers and Operating Systems
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Design Systems
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“People are people. They come in many shapes and forms and
abilities. Computer interfaces are input and output hardware.
They help people communicate with software. Websites are
software that help people accomplish their goals, regardless of the
hardware and software combination, regardless of the shapes and
forms of their people. That is accessibility.”
Anne Gibson
Reframing Accessibility for the Web (A List Apart)
12/30/2019 26

Cheers!
12/30/2019 27
How to contact me:
 Blog: The Accessibility (www.theaccessibility.com)
 Twitter: @sgrobschmidt
 Email: sgrobschmidt@gmail.com
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgrobschmidt/

Sources
2017 Disability Status Report United States (Cornell University
http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/StatusReports/2017-PDF/2017-
StatusReport_US.pdf?CFID=20313904&CFTOKEN=bece0b096ce193d6-
7458EBCE-970A-DC32-2351FA07D72E993E
Blindness and vision impairment
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-
visual-impairment
8 Facts About Hearing Disabilities and Web Accessibility
https://www.boia.org/blog/8-facts-about-hearing-disabilities-and-web-
accessibility
11 Facts about Physical Disability
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-physical-
disability
12/30/2019 28
WebAIM.org
https://webaim.org/
Images are author’s own unless otherwise sourced.

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